Tag Archives: tumblr

Right now, the space that Twitter fills is getting crowded. Not that Twitter was there first, but it surely is the widest, most recognized service in the area. And, most of all, I’ll list one the ones I have an account.

Twitter (me): Ok, you all know Twitter. 140 chars, used to have updates and notifications via IM (but is down for a very long time already), updates and notifications via SMS.

Jaiku (me): Was there before Twitter. Works almost the same way: Messages are limited to 140 chars, updates and notifications via IM and SMS. Also, it provides a proper “reply to” function, which allows you to do a reply to an specific message (Twitter always points to the last message from the user you are replying to.) The problem with Jaiku is that, about an year ago, it was bought by Google and they closed the service to everyone. Right now, to get an account, you need an invitation code by someone that already have an account there.

Facebook (me): Although it is a social network thing, it have a “What are you doing?” field (originally, it was a “[Username] is …” field.) As far as I can see, the status can be longer than 140 chars (but I’m not sure how long.)

Identi.ca (me): The new Twitter clone, but completely open source. You can download the sources and run your own service. And, because it works with the Open Micro-Blogging Protocol, you can still reply to people using other servers.

Tumblr (me): Tumblr works a little bit like Pownce: You can update your status, post pictures, links, audio and video. One the nice things that Tumblr does is create a page that actually looks like a blog to you.

Plurk (me): Almost the same as Twitter (140 chars), but it can save some space with “actions” (you start you update with a pre-defined verb.) Again, like Twitter, they have IM notifications and updates, but it’s down for the moment. They have a timeline feature, which displays the “progress”

Now re-read the list and notice that every single alternative offers things better the Twitter. And, still, none of the them actually harm Twitter’s popularity. Heck, not even the FailWhale seems capable of harming that. But, still the point remains: There are alternatives to Twitter, which work better and/or offer more features.